Bernard Allen
Question:36 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation if he is proposing to restructure the regional tourism authorities. [11595/00]
Priority Questions. - Regional Tourism Authorities.
The regional tourism authorities were established by Bord Fáilte, under the Tourist Traffic Acts, for the promotion and development of tourism on a regional basis. In line with the commitment set out in the Government's An Action Programme for the Millennium, Bord Fáilte initiated a review of the RTAs during 1999. The objective of the review is to ensure that RTAs are positioned to make the optimum contribution to the realisation of national tourism objectives and targets set by Government while taking into account regional priorities and customer focus. In the context of the review, a report on the RTAs was commissioned by Bord Fáilte from Fitzpatrick Associates.
The outcome of the review will help to achieve an improved delineation of RTA functions and objectives within overall State tourism architecture. Discussions are currently nearing conclusion between officials from my Department and Bord Fáilte on issues arising from the review process, and should be completed by early May. Once these discussions have been finalised, I expect that Bord Fáilte will call a meeting of representatives of the RTAs with a view to informing them of the outcome of the review and setting out their vision for future RTAs.
Can I take it from the Minister's response that he is in possession of the report? Would he agree that it is time to look at the whole fragmented approach to the marketing and development of tourism in the regions, particularly given that there are about nine organisations doing the same job? When does the Minister hope to be in a position to make hard decisions?
I have the report. We have gone through it and that process is nearing conclusion. Other issues have been taking up my time in the interim. The report is being widely discussed with the various interested bodies within tourism in the regions. Those discussions are nearing conclusion at which stage the report will be published.
I agree with the Deputy that there are far too many bodies dealing with the whole tourism area. We have an industry which is made up of so many independent yet at the same time interdependent factors. There is a huge amount of overlapping and this report will, I hope, do something to restructure all of that.